For many years, it has been well known to utilize envelopes for a wide variety of purposes. The most common use, of course, is for mailing materials that are inserted within the envelope to an intended recipient of the materials. Typically, the envelope will be sealed by gluing the flap after the materials have been inserted into the envelope.
Over the years, the construction of envelopes has evolved to meet the demands of various applications. For example, it was proposed very early in Carroll U.S. Pat. No. 479,555, issued Jul. 26, 1892, to provide a combined promissory note and envelope which may be made from a single piece of paper. Subsequently, Albree U.S. Pat. No. 863,688, issued Aug. 20, 1907, proposed a pay envelope and voucher formed from a blank of paper. Later, Kosteling U.S. Pat. No. 2,402,821, issued Jun. 25, 1946, disclosed a two-way envelope for returning a banking depositor's receipt and also making the next deposit. Subsequently, Fromm U.S. Pat. No. 2,840,295, issued Jun. 24, 1958, disclosed a banking envelope having individually separable forms. As for other early examples, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,265,159; 1,467,803; 1,588,875; 2,196,461; 2,835,434; 2,840,296; and 2,858,061. While generally representative of the evolution of envelope construction, serious problems have nonetheless remained.
As representative of the more recent evolution of envelope construction, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,487,360; 4,730,767; 4,730,768; 5,366,146; and 5,458,284. These patents all relate to various forms of two-way envelopes, i.e., envelopes that by way of example may include an outgoing mailer, a business return envelope, a payment coupon and a statement or the like. With particular reference to the '767, '146, and '284 patents, they each disclose a form of what has become commonly known as a bangtail panel removable from a return envelope along a tear-off line.
As shown in the '284 patent, the bangtail panel may typically include promotional material which has become commonplace in the mailing of credit card statements. As specifically shown in FIG. 18 of the '284 patent, the bangtail panel 17b may be separated from the return envelope panel 12b by using the perforation line 9b.
Despite the advancements that have been made as represented by the more recent patents, envelopes are known to have seams that are created when the flap and panels are folded and adhesively secured. These seams would seem to be a relatively by-product of the manufacturing process, particularly where the envelope is well formed and the seams are securely joined by adhesive. However, even when this is the case, the seams can be a problem for the recipient of an envelope having an insert that is to be handled by automated equipment.
In particular, there have been serious problems in connection with the processing of return envelopes that are utilized for payment in the credit card industry. Each credit card company processes an enormous volume of mail every month when credit card holders make payment utilizing a return envelope assembly that has been provided for this purpose. Conventionally, the credit card holder will return a payment coupon together with a personal check that must be removed from the return envelope assembly for processing.
Due to the enormous volume of such payments, the credit card companies must be able to utilize automatic mail opening equipment in order to provide timely handling for the contents thereof. Such automatic mail opening equipment typically causes the top of the return envelope to register and be slit, following which each of the sides of the return envelope are similarly caused to register and be slit so that the return envelope can be opened along the fold line which exists between the front and rear panels thereof. After the top and sides sequentially register and are slit, the envelope drops into a trough and a vacuum pulls the front and rear panels open so that the envelope assumes a generally V-shape.
At this point in the automated procedure, the front and rear panels of the envelope each enter a guide and the inserts (e.g., the payment coupon, personal check, etc.) also enter a guide. The guides for the front and rear panels maintain them in a generally V-shape whereas the guide for the payment coupon/personal check maintains them generally equidistant and between the front and rear panels. At a downstream location, a belt grabs the inserts, i.e., the payment coupon, personal check, etc., and delivers them for processing, and the remainder of the return envelope is discarded.
For credit card companies, the inserts need to be processed at the earliest possible moment since the credit card holder may, e.g., be credited with payment as early as the date of receipt of the return envelope. It will be understood that credit card companies process personal checks worth extremely significant amounts in the aggregate and any delay in depositing these checks is a critical cost factor. Unfortunately, the time for depositing the checks is longer than desirable in view of a problem that is well known in connection with the use of automatic mail opening equipment to process the return envelopes.
More specifically, the return envelope is conventionally formed with side flaps that are quite small in width and are folded inwardly between the front and rear panels. The small size makes sense from one point of view inasmuch as minimizing the dimensions of the various portions of the return envelope including the side flaps, saves on the cost of materials, but there are practical restrictions on the size and relative dimensioning of envelopes due to postal regulations which include a minimum width requirement as well as a requirement that envelopes be within a certain "aspect ratio." As for the aspect ratio, this is the term used for the width of an envelope in relation to its height, and the requirement is that this must be between 1.3 and 2.5.
If an envelope is of a size having an aspect ratio outside this range, there is a surcharge that is added since it is considered "non-standard mail." The same holds true for the minimum width requirement, i.e., for any envelope having a width less than 5 inches. As a result, designers of envelopes have tried to maintain a balance as to the minimization of material and meeting the requirements for standard mail as defined by postal regulations.
In so doing, the return envelopes that have been utilized in most cases by credit card companies have assumed a relatively standard configuration. This has included providing side flaps of minimum width in envelopes that are used by credit card companies and, more specifically, where the spacing between the innermost edge of the side flaps to the opposite edge of the envelope is greater than the width of a standard personal check, i.e., 6 inches. However, the personal check can easily be caught between the side flap and the rear panel so that it is not properly processed by the automatic mail opening equipment.
When this occurs, the personal check is drawn with the rear panel by the vacuum and then proceeds with the rear panel into its guide rather than with the guide for the inserts as intended. To detect this problem, the automatic mail opening equipment is provided with a sensor that detects the presence of more than a single thickness in the location of the rear panel after it has entered its guide. Specifically, the sensor is set to look for more than a single thickness in the region of the rear panel between the innermost edges of the side flaps. If the check has been caught between one of the side flaps and the rear panel due to shifting while it has been in transit, the sensor will detect more than a single thickness and will shut down the line for manual removal of the envelope. In practice, it is understood that some credit card companies have experienced shut downs on an average of approximately one out of every 25 envelopes that pass through the automatic mail opening equipment.
As previously mentioned, the difficulty is encountered due to the spacing between the innermost edges of the side flaps in relation to the opposite side edges of the envelope. When that spacing is greater than the width of a standard personal check, the check can shift to one side edge as it is being transported in the mail and then back again to a point where it becomes lodged between one of the side flaps and the rear panel to which it is adhesively secured. In fact, and as mentioned, this occurs with such great frequency that the automatic mail opening equipment is shut down on an average of one out of every 25 envelopes processed.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the foregoing problems and achieving one or more of the resulting objects.